Movers and shakers steer clear of cement

Friday 24 January 2014 15:43 BST

The signal room at Victoria station may have flooded with fast-setting cement yesterday but that was not an issue for the Debrett’s 500 party at Phillips auction house in nearby Howick Street. The party was for a list of top influencers but most were taxi-driven.

However, a few had travel horror stories of their own. “I once got on a direct train to London where I was supposed to be presenting the Six O’Clock News,” said TV presenter Fiona Bruce. “It turned out not to be going to London at all. I was loudly horrified. But everyone rallied round and got me there in the end.”

Moshi Monsters guru Michael Acton Smith’s story was even more impressive: “Once, while travelling, I hired a motorbike to impress a girl. On the very first corner we crashed. I still have the scar.”

Safety concerns have stopped him “ever attempting this again”.

Meanwhile, Tory Education minister John Nash’s safety worries were appropriately cement-based: “I do hope no one got stuck in it.” It wasn’t that fast-drying.